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I have had my X5 M Sport for three weeks now and it is already showing stone chips on the rear wheel arches, I am waiting for my dealer to come back to me with recommendations. I have spoken with a company who have put VentureShield® Paint Protection Film on a number of X5's. A number of which have been carried out under warranty. Has anyone had this done and what does it look like?

I had mine done. It does not prevent stone chips. It goes on clear. You barely see it.

I have an X5 M Sport 2008 here in the UK I have had exactly the same problem with stone chips I wont bothr sending photo's because they are exactly te sme as yours !! BMW have re painted both back doors sils and the wheel arches and then fitted mud flaps but after less than six months it have come back again I am now waiting to see what they do next.

I took my car to BMW last week with exactly the same problem, I have a 2008 3litre SD X5 with the M pack on it, can anyone tell me if BMW have accepted the problem as a design fault in the UK and covered it under warranty, I can see that I am going to have a battle with them, it is certainly is a design fault!

I have been pushing BMW for 2 months regarding the erosion on my wheel arches, they have finally agreed to correct the problem after a lot of persuasion from myself, I think it will cost them in the region of £2500, initially they said they would only respray the damage and they would not pay for the cost of the "film" cover which was minimal compared to the cost of the respray, amazing, they accepted that it was a manufactures fault after a lot of persuation from myself but they wanted me to pay to have it corrected. I love the car, I have had all makes in the past 20 years, Mercedes, Land Rover, Porch etc but I will NEVER have another BMW just purely based on their reluctance to give customer after care, I spend around £70,000 pa on Cars and for that I want good honest service from a reliable supplier and unfortunately I have not had that from BMW so I will be shopping elsewhere next year where I will get it, I have had other problems with the car like rusty wheel hubs from birth which they WILL NOT address and a faulty Interface Board on the command unit which affected the bluetooth functionality on the handsfree which they finally addressed after much effort from my part, come on BMW, times are hard, try keeping your customers, PLEASE STOP PISSING THEM OFF and honour your quality agreement

I purchased a carbon black one in January with the M sport package and mine looks identical to the one in the photo. Never down a dirt road with less than 5000 miles on it.
I am very disappointed to say the least.
Has anyone had any luck with getting BMW to correct the problem thinking about trading mine in on the new 2011 Porsche Cayenne if they do not resolve the problem.
When I contacted my dealer and asked if they had know about the problem they pretended not to have any knowledge of the problem. Then I send them a link to this thread to give them some idea that it is a known problem.

Anything that sticks out is going to get hit with road rash. The black parts on my non sport X5 are showing wear. The more aerodynamic vehicals get the more damage they get especially the coke bottle designs with anything flared. Just look at the rear quarters (in front of the rear wheels) on e46 M3 cars. They are rashed in 10k miles. It is not a design flaw. The only "flaw" is that BMW does not use the clear protection film like Porsche does or for that fact Ford or Toyota.

I was at a dealer in RI last week end. They have a brand new X5M Black Saphire in their yard. 700 miles on it. Same thing, all pitted around the wheels. The sales guy pretended he knew nothing about it and that is was never brought up...

I think BMW is aware, but they ignore it.

If you can't drive your M package on a regular road for more then 700 miles, why buy them?

It's the consequence for having wide sticky tires and painted fender flares/siderockers... my M3 is having the same problem. This is why I just went with the regular sport package for my wife's X5 since that car will be used more during the winter.

Where are you guys locating mud flaps for the 2011 x5 with m package? Would like to grab some right away and put on brand new vehicle, would prefer the ones that require no drilling and are custom made for this vehicle.

I was curious about these reports.
I had not noticed any stone chips, but then I normally drive through a car wash.
My car has 11000 kms on it now.
Last night I checked it in my garage, and to my delighted surprise, found that all the open areas for stone pecking (as it is called), from the tires, is covered in UPVC (clear bra)
it looks professionally done, and I dare to say from the BMW factory.
I can ask my dealer if it was delivered that way, or if they added it.
But I don't think they did !

After 11,000 kms it's looking as good as new down there, and it was driven through the last winter here in Belgium, but not much.

Yes BMW have taken responsability for it. 1,000 miles and the same issue on back wheel arches and the back door. BMW are aware and the fault is that the side step has been reduced in size as well as the wider wheel. They accepted the fault and have resprayed my car and applied stone chip. If they had not it would be outside the garage with a sign do not buy this model. I love the car but this is not acceptable as I would not have purchased it if i was aware. To be fair to BMW they have delt with the issue. We will see how it works !!!!!!!!!!!!!. I hope so as I like the car.

Turns out my dealer knows teh problem well, so as mine was a demo, and obviously he didn't want people spotting that, otherwise they probably would order the car he added at the dealers expense a set of BMW clear bra. here's the price in Belgium, fitted
worth doing I would say.
But i would be getting the dealer to re-paint it, and fit these under warranty if it were happening on mine. clearly BMW know all about it, that's why they developed these clear bra stickers

I am considering purchasing x5 3.5i but the only sport pack available here is M for reasons only known to bmw Canada….. after reading all about the stone chips problem, I emailed bmw but they responded that they have not heard of stone chip problem Can someone with M pack experience confirm that the clear bra application (bmw parts or aftermarket) resolves the issue permanently? Or the M pack is simply a "do not buy" no matter what protection is applied….. Thanks!

Turns out my dealer knows teh problem well, so as mine was a demo, and obviously he didn't want people spotting that, otherwise they probably would order the car he added at the dealers expense a set of BMW clear bra. here's the price in Belgium, fitted
worth doing I would say.
But i would be getting the dealer to re-paint it, and fit these under warranty if it were happening on mine. clearly BMW know all about it, that's why they developed these clear bra stickers

Can you please post some close-up pictures of the applied clear-bra stickers? My 09 X5 35D does not have it and I wish to get the clear-bra applied in the right spots. Are these two pieces - one for the door and one for the wheel arch (dog-leg) section?

I am considering purchasing x5 3.5i but the only sport pack available here is M for reasons only known to bmw Canada….. after reading all about the stone chips problem, I emailed bmw but they responded that they have not heard of stone chip problem Can someone with M pack experience confirm that the clear bra application (bmw parts or aftermarket) resolves the issue permanently? Or the M pack is simply a "do not buy" no matter what protection is applied….. Thanks!

They know about it beleive me. I callec BMW customer service several times. They just refuse to admit it. Cuz if they do it's gona cost them $$$.

I do not recommend the M package at all. I tried everything, repainted, installed mud flaps and clear bra. After paying $1000 myself, It still does it.

I ended up trading for a Benz GL 350 after only 6 months. Very frustrated at BMW.

They know about it beleive me. I callec BMW customer service several times. They just refuse to admit it. Cuz if they do it's gona cost them $$$.

I do not recommend the M package at all. I tried everything, repainted, installed mud flaps and clear bra. After paying $1000 myself, It still does it.

I ended up trading for a Benz GL 350 after only 6 months. Very frustrated at BMW.

My recommendation: DO NOT BUY!

First of all it sucks to lay down your time and money for the X5M, very sorry it went that way for you, it would have driven me nuts for sure. Somehow the car gods must have mistaken you for me this time. Looked at the Benz 350 but wasn't my taste but others do buy it and guess it works for you. Hope they didn't crush you on the trade.